Though Monday was the deadline for study abroad course approval for spring semester, students are still busy completing their pre-departure checklists and visa applications.

Besides course approvals, the checklist also includes health forms, housing questionnaires and digital conduct agreements.

Allie DeMaio, junior in LAS and peer advisor, recommends that students come to the Study Abroad office so that peer advisors can help them prioritize.

“There are certain things that you can do that are easier than others that you can get out of the way and then focus on more complicated things like your visa or course approval,” DeMaio said.

Neetu Hariharan, junior in LAS and peer advisor, said that the majority of students’ pre-departure questions are about course approvals.

“I recommend getting them approved right away,” Hariharan said. “When it gets down to the end of the semester, a lot of professors are concerned with their own classes.”

Bridget Doyle, study abroad outreach coordinator, said this year, in response to student feedback, the Study Abroad office held two hour-long course approval workshops. In those workshops, the advisors went over how to pick classes, search the databases and find course equivalencies.

To begin, students can look on the course approval website database. If the class has already been approved, students have to print out the form and ask their academic advisor indicate whether it is for major, minor, general education or elective credit.

Doyle said some course approvals may be more complicated. For courses not in the database, students must get the approval by a 299 advisor, a designated faculty member from each respective department. The next step is to get the signature of the student, academic advisor and college.

Hariharan recommends students to write down more courses than they plan to take abroad as it may not be possible to take some of the intended courses. Also to save time, she suggested seeking approval for courses pertaining to the same subject in bulk.

DeMaio said that the visa is extremely overwhelming for students because the application process for visas is different for every country.

“One thing that is hard for students is that our office can’t help them with the visa process because we are not authorized to do that,” DeMaio said “We do have a lot of resources on our website in terms of agencies that can help you fill out visa forms.”

There are different required cultural orientations for every country that is led by the study abroad advisor for that country. Some of the orientations have a student panel of returnees. Students can ask returnees questions about their experiences.

Taylor Ortiz, junior in AHS, attended the make-up cultural orientation without the student panel.

“Perhaps I would have found the cultural orientation to be more useful if the student panel was there, but the meeting I went to didn’t seem to provide any extremely beneficial information,” Ortiz said. “It gave some advice on what to do about culture shock, being homesick, etc, but it was all information I had heard before.”

DeMaio, who traveled to Peru her freshman year, felt the orientation was helpful.

“The cultural orientation helps you orient yourself even though it may seem like common sense; it is helpful to remember when you get there, ‘Oh, they talked about this, this is what I should do in that situation,’” DeMaio said.

Although the Study Abroad office provides a cultural orientation, Ortiz said she wishes that the office would offer a packing checklist.

“It’s hard to remember certain things that I wouldn’t use every day but would definitely need,” she said.